The Price of Survival

Hesperia ran.

The sound of her own breathing was drowned out by the deep, inhuman howl behind them.

She didn't dare look back.

Her legs burned as she pushed forward, the uneven stone beneath her feet making every step treacherous. The others were ahead of her, moving fast—Denzel leading the way, Mara close behind. The injured man stumbled, nearly falling, but the young boy grabbed his arm, forcing him forward.

They didn't have time to help him properly.

If he fell, he wouldn't get back up.

The ruins blurred around them, the corridors twisting in unnatural ways. The System was still shifting the environment, closing off exits, forcing them down a path it wanted them to take.

And behind them—

The Erasure Unit followed.

Hesperia could feel it.

Its presence wasn't like the Adaptive Killers. It wasn't an enemy that could simply be avoided, or fought, or even tricked.

It was something worse.

A hunter designed for one purpose.

To erase things that didn't belong.

To erase her.

The boy ahead of her stumbled. His foot caught on a loose stone, and he hit the ground hard, scraping his hands against the rough floor.

The injured man turned back for him. "Get up!"

But Hesperia was already moving.

She grabbed the boy's arm, yanking him to his feet.

The moment her fingers touched his skin, a sharp pain flared in her head.

A memory—no, the absence of one.

An empty space.

Something that should have been there but wasn't.

She flinched, sucking in a sharp breath. The boy looked up at her, confused.

"Are you okay?"

She wasn't.

She didn't know why.

There was something about him.

Something that made her chest feel too tight, her vision blur for half a second.

Someone she was supposed to remember.

But the memory was gone.

Taken.

And she didn't know when.

The boy didn't wait for an answer—he just pulled away, sprinting after the others.

Hesperia hesitated for half a second too long.

And that was almost her mistake.

Because the moment she turned—

The thing was right behind her.

She barely had time to react before it moved.

It didn't attack like a normal enemy.

It didn't lunge. Didn't slash.

It reached for her.

And the moment it did—

The world around her twisted.

The dungeon flickered.

The stones beneath her feet cracked apart, but not like they were breaking—like they were glitching. Like the world itself was coming undone just from the Erasure Unit's presence.

Her heartbeat slammed against her ribs.

She jumped back, narrowly avoiding its grasp.

The moment she did, the space where she had just been standing was gone.

Not broken.

Not destroyed.

Just… gone.

Her stomach twisted.

The System wasn't trying to kill her.

It was trying to delete her.

Denzel's voice cut through the panic. "MOVE!"

Hesperia didn't hesitate.

She bolted forward, putting as much distance between herself and the thing as possible.

The corridor opened into a massive chamber.

A circular room, lined with glowing runes, the air thick with shimmering distortions. The architecture here was different—not ruins, but something more structured.

A checkpoint.

A transition zone.

And in the center of the room—

A rift.

Hesperia's breath caught.

It looked like a tear in reality itself—a vertical slit of raw, shifting energy, pulsing with unstable light. The runes around the chamber seemed to be feeding into it, stabilizing it.

Mara swore under her breath. "That wasn't here before."

Denzel wasn't listening. He turned, eyes locked onto Hesperia.

"You. Explain."

She blinked, heart still racing. "What?"

"That thing is after you," he said coldly. "It didn't start moving until you showed up. And I don't like coincidences."

The others were staring at her now.

Hesperia felt the weight of their suspicion.

And she couldn't blame them.

She was an anomaly—the System had said so itself.

She clenched her jaw. "I don't know what it is."

Not a lie.

Not the full truth, either.

Denzel's gaze didn't waver. "But you know why it's after you."

She exhaled.

"I think…" She hesitated, choosing her words carefully. "I think the System doesn't like me."

Mara scoffed. "That's an understatement."

A deep rumbling cut through the air.

The Erasure Unit had entered the chamber.

The runes flickered violently, reacting to its presence. The rift behind them pulsed.

The thing took another step forward—and the floor beneath it shattered like glass.

The System was struggling to keep it stable.

Mara cursed. "What the hell do we do?"

The young boy pulled at Denzel's sleeve. "The rift. It leads somewhere, right?"

Denzel's expression was unreadable.

"Not somewhere safe."

Hesperia's stomach twisted.

She didn't like the look of the rift.

It was unstable.

She had no idea what would happen if they stepped inside.

But the Erasure Unit took another step forward, and the decision was made for them.

Denzel turned to the group. "Jump!"

Mara hesitated. "That's—"

"NOW!"

The red-haired woman swore, then grabbed the injured man and dragged him toward the rift.

The boy followed.

Denzel locked eyes with Hesperia.

"You first."

She hesitated. "What?"

"You heard me."

She didn't have time to argue.

The Erasure Unit lunged.

She jumped.

The moment her body passed through the rift—

Her vision fractured.